Eighty-three percent of organizations say it’s important to “develop leadership at all levels,” yet one of the most common reasons for employee dissatisfaction is lack of leadership training. At the same time, across the country, people spend over $350 billion a year on leadership training, with almost half ot that in North America! However, one highly effective but relatively inexpensive way you may not have considered to improve your leadership skills is through a membership in BNI.
How a Networking Organization Can Improve Your Leadership Skills
BNI is well known as a highly effective networking organization with over four decades of experience in changing the way the world does business. Much of the knowledge you gain through a BNI membership can contribute directly and indirectly to your leadership skills.
Different Folks
Local Executive Director, Brian Alcorn, has pointed out that a room full of business owners isn’t necessarily the easiest group in the world to lead! Each is a leader in their own kingdom, meaning they’re not necessarily used to being told what to do.
Becoming a leader of leaders is a special skill set that you can’t get just anywhere. BNI is one of the places where you can.
Unlike some other “leads passing” organizations, BNI puts its primary focus on building lifelong relationships. To build lifelong relationships, you need to understand how to get along with different people and personalities diplomatically to keep those relationships intact, whether you’re in an official leadership role or leading by example.
Forty Years of Experience
Members have access to a library of training. Leaders of the organization have learned through years of testing what works best.
That training covers many subjects, including leadership skills.
While members can enroll in a course to fulfill a specific leadership role within their BNI chapter, such as President, Vice President, Membership Committee, etc, they can also take general courses that will help them be better members in BNI and better leaders in and outside of it.
The BNI Leadership Committee
Every BNI chapter has a leadership committee made up of several positions with their own roles in supporting other chapter members. In addition to their own roles and responsibilities, the committee helps to make decisions for the chapter together.
The chapter president leads the leadership team and selects the other members to fulfill the other chapter roles. Here are some of the roles you can find in each BNI chapter:
President - The Chapter President works with the leadership team to create the mission for and guide the chapter. The president also runs the weekly meetings as well as the monthly Chapter Success meeting with the leadership team. Finally, the president is in charge of selecting the rest of the leadership committee members.
Vice President - The Vice President is responsible for tracking chapter statistics, including the PALMS report. The VP gives a report each week on referrals, “Thank you for closed business,” and other relevant information. The VP also chairs the membership committee.
Secretary Treasurer - The Secretary Treasurer’s primary responsibility is to collect dues for the room and any other necessary expenses. The ST also gathers information on the weekly speaker, presents an introduction for the speaker, and assigns a presenter to introduce the speaker and creates the weekly speaker rotation.
Membership Committee - The membership committee, led by the Vice President, interviews potential members and decides who can join. They also mediate any conflicts between members as they develop.
Visitor Hosts - While all BNI members should strive to welcome visitors, visitors hosts have the designated responsibility of meeting visitors when they arrive, learning about them, and introducing them to the people who would likely be of most interest to them. Visitor hosts also follow up with visitors after the meeting and register them in the app.
Other Positions - There are several other positions in BNI that we’ll share in next month’s blog!
Whether a member chooses to pursue a leadership position or simply builds relationships while interacting with other business leaders, joining a BNI chapter does much to improve their leadership skills as they grow their relationships and their businesses.
